I say just stay slightly tighter in early position and looser in late position.

Always raise in late position if it hasnt been raised before you and you have any type of hand at all.

Limping AK is never good, and I dont really like limping pocket pairs in late position, even if its been limped around. Raising allows you to take control of the hand, and by keeping a loose image, its great for the metagame getting paid off when u actually do hit big.

Almost half of my profit at ring comes from my preflop raises, and taking the pot down with the continuation bet. The other half comes from when I raise preflop then hit the flop hard and stack somoene that cant let go of their hand, and just doesnt believe I have it.

Those are precisely the type of players you WANT staying in pots with you.

I think your main problem is that you are having trouble letting go of hands when its obvious someone else hit the flop really hard. Yeah, it sucks that they played that against you, but the percentages are still in your favor. The amount of times they DONT hit, combine with the amount of times you DO hit, as well as the times where you can c-bet and take the pot down vs 1 or 2 players, makes you money.

However, you cant make money if you dont let go of your marginal hands when people are showing alot of strength back at you, or if you continuation bet too many pots multi-way when theres a very strong chance that someone else hit the flop.

Work on recognizing when its likely somoene else has hit the flop on a big multi-way pot and you've missed. Also work on recognizing what type of hands people have when they play back at you. If someone makes a terrible play at you with garbage, take a note of it, and play on.

These are exactly the type of players you want playing with you.